Archive for 'Uncategorized'
French Back-to-School: La Rentrée (de réformes) Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on Aug 31, 2015
Uh-oh — it’s already la rentrée! As the end of August approaches, students are getting ready to head back to school, people are returning back from vacation, and workers are heading back to work. In French, there’s an important word for all of this: la rentrée. Literally meaning “the return,” la rentrée refers to the…
French Singer-Songwriter Georges Brassens Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on Aug 24, 2015
Georges Brassens is a French icon; a singer-songwriter and poet who rebelled against what he saw as upper-class and traditional values. His lyrics are poetry, but they are notoriously difficult to translate because he often used argot, puns, sarcasm and black humor. Oftentimes in translation, the real beauty of his lyrics are lost. The lyrics below…
French Actor: Lambert Wilson Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on Aug 17, 2015
Have you ever heard of Lambert Wilson? He’s a well known and prolific French actor. While he appears mostly in French films today, you may have caught him in English-language productions as well. He has performed in Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions (2001), Catwoman (2004), and, most recently, Babylon A.D. (2007) with Vin Diesel and…
Territorial Reform in France: La réforme terrritoriale Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on Aug 3, 2015
Last summer, my mother-in-law and I brought my son to the store Nature et Découvertes in Paris to find a little toy to keep him occupied on the plane ride home. We didn’t find the perfect toy to keep a 1-year-old happy on an eight hour flight (I’m not sure that it exists!), but we did find…
L’International des Feux Loto-Québec (The Montreal Fireworks Festival) Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on Jul 27, 2015
The summer is the season of fireworks. Some years my family has been lucky: We get to see Fourth of July fireworks in the US before heading out to Paris for our annual pilgrimage and watching the spectacular fireworks for la fête nationale. This year, however, we are not traveling and I am stuck dreaming…
Today in the French News Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on Jul 6, 2015
Want to improve your French language skills? One thing that always helps is reading les journaux (newspapers) in French. Yes, the language used in newspapers can be more difficult, but I find that it is easier to grasp the gist of un article (an article), too. If you know les titres (the headlines) in English, you…
Chez le caviste Posted by Elizabeth Schmermund on Jun 15, 2015
My French husband sells wine for a living. Whenever we talk about moving to his hometown of Paris, he reminds me that he would have to find a new job or move to a city like Bordeaux. This is because wine sales work very differently in France as opposed to the United States, where fine…